X: An Alternate Past
by Bob the Almighty
Summary: A major AU exploring how X might have been if Kamui had been raised differently and wasn't so wont to angst and depression. Please Review!
1. Prologue

_X: An Alternate Past: Prologue_

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_Disclaimer: CLAMP owns X and Tokyo Babylon. Various other people own the products and non-CLAMP characters or elements mentioned. I own all original characters. _

_Warning: This is a AU-divergence fic with a lot of original characters. Kamui is really OOC but for a good reason. This chapter is rated PG as there is no angst or violence. Rating might change._

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__"I might have found us a job." Arowyn Dinaca declared softly as she crossed the deck to lean on the railing beside me. 

"Oh?" I replied, leaning forward slightly. I took a sip of my iced tea and dropped my personal shields enough to let the cool ocean breeze ruffle my hair. I mentally noted the fact that it was starting to get pretty long, almost reaching my shoulders. I kind of liked it that way though- even though certain members of my crew called it 'cute'. 

"Yes." Arow said with a slight nod, as she too downgraded her personal shields a level to let the breeze in. Not that either of us really needed _any_ shielding while aboard the _Wind of the Stars_, not with the amount of protection inured in her make-up, but in our line of work it was always best to be careful. Besides, it wouldn't do for us to forget to put out shields back up if we had to leave the _Wind_'s protections in an emergency. That could get us killed. 

I was mildly surprised that Arowyn had found us a job so quickly. The _Wind_ and her crew, which consisted of myself, Arowyn, and three others, had only just landed on this island the day before. I wondered if this meant that our reputation was actually working _for_ us for once. I was really getting sick of people running away screaming whenever we docked in a port. It wasn't _our_ fault that places tended to fall apart shortly after we left them. And, despite what everyone said, there had _never_ been any casualties in any of these accidents. 

"So are you going to tell me anything about this job? Like the pay for instance?" I smiled slightly at the far away look in my friend's eyes and wondered just what she was doing. 

Like the rest of the crew of the _Wind_, including myself, Arowyn was blessed with special 'gifts'. In her particular case these gifts were Telempathy and the ability to control the element of water. In addition to this she had an excellent sense of navigation; which, combined with her water-magic, made her the perfect person to actually pilot the _Wind_. Also, her empathy was a welcome asset in a negotiator and thus she was almost always on the job-scouting team. 

"It's rather unusual," Arow admitted at last, breaking me out my thoughts. 

For a moment I couldn't recall just what she was talking about but then I remembered; the job. I cursed myself for my lapse then decided it was the tropical weather's fault; it made a person instinctively assume they were on vacation even when their conscious mind knew they weren't. "How so? Do you think this might be some sort of trap?" 

She shook her head. "Not a trap... the woman doesn't even know us by our reputation. She was actually referenced to us by one of the few clients we've had that didn't care about the property damage. " At this she grimaced slightly. "We really _are_ going to have to do something about that..." 

I nodded. "I'm working on it... what we _really_ need to do is manage to finish a job _without_ the property damage. If that's even possible.... Anyway that's besides the point here. What's so strange about the job- and what _is_ the job?" 

Arowyn frowned slightly. "Well, first of all, it's not the usual find some ancient relic from beyond time and space type of thing. It actually seems to be a missing person case." 

I blinked. "Missing person? That's not usually the type of thing that we get called in for... what's the catch?" 

Arow smirked. " The catch is that the client doesn't have any idea where this person is, or even what he looks like. Apparently he went missing about six or seven years ago and no one's bothered to look for him until now. That's really all the woman would tell me- she said she'll only give the full details to our 'leader'- meaning you, our dear esteemed captain-" 

She paused to smirk mischievously at me and I grimaced. I _was_ the captain of the _Wind_ but I've never really cared for the formal title. I've never really cared for any type of formalities; they were too... orderly. Having a chaos-mage as an adopted parent did wonders for a person's sense of order... or lack thereof, but I liked to think that I was fairly good at it. Besides, the titles were only really used as a joke of sorts; all of us had a formal title for what we did aboard the _Wind_. I was captain for the dual reasons of being leader of our group and having taken a few leadership classes a few years ago when we got our school stuck in a groundhog-day style time loop. 

I smiled slightly at that particular memory.... The timeloop incident was the main reason most of us were out here rather than in school somewhere. Living the same year over and over again for _who knows_ how long was certainly an interesting way to graduate high-school _and_ university, learn all sorts of miscellaneous things you wouldn't have learned otherwise, and get most of your biggest mistakes over with without much lasting damage. It was also rather fun to tell people that you were really about three times older than you looked. 

Arowyn continued, "- _if_ we decide to accept the job." 

I stepped back slightly from the railing and put my iced-tea aside. "She'll only give the actual details to me? That sucks. I wonder who this person she wants to find is... did she even mention a name?" 

Arow shook her head. "No... she was extremely sparing on the details. Lucca said that he thinks that whoever this guy is he's really important- but I can't imagine why no one has tried to find him before now... like I said, it's a really strange case." 

"I see... Lucca was at the meeting with you?" 

As our eldest crew member, Lucca Arcadia was sort of like an elder brother to the lot of us, or a parent maybe. Despite his age (which he claimed was 27 but probably had a 2 or a 3 hundred before that considering the fact that he was an elf) he wasn't much taller or physically stronger than me, but he made up for it by being a rather powerful battle-mage and a damn useful person to have around in a melee fight. His latent, but extremely useful when working, psychic abilities were also a plus. He'd originally been sent to watch over the lot of us, after the timeloop incident and our newfound independence. Officially he was acting as guardian in lea of our families, but had long since become just one of the crew. As self-proclaimed 'chief of security', it wasn't really all that surprising that he would accompany Arowyn into what may have been a trap. 

"Yeah, he's checking on the others right now but he said he wants to talk to you later. He was awfully quiet during the interview... I'm not sure but I think he might have 'gotten' something out of it that I didn't." 

I nodded, a serious expression gracing my face for a minute. If Lucca had 'gotten' something from the meeting it probably meant that the subject of the job was even more important than I had previously thought. Lucca's power seldom kicked in unless it was really important. 

Nevertheless, I didn't really like having to decide whether or not to take a job like this without full information beforehand. However, I _could_ understand why the client wouldn't want to give details out to people who might decide not to even accept the job. Even though the person the client wanted found had been missing for quite a few years, it was possible that they didn't want anyone to know that the person _was_ missing. Maybe the person hadn't been important _before_ but was _now-_ like an heir to a vast fortune or maybe an island kingdom. 

Furthermore, the client might not even _want_ to hire us after she met me. Although I'm the leader of our group, I'm also the youngest member: being only 15 or maybe 16. This didn't normally mean a thing, especially since if you counted the timeloop incident I was probably around thirty. In addition, I'd proven time and again that I'm competent, dedicated, and a good leader; but sometimes none of that mattered to a client. That was another reason why it was usually Arowyn and one of the others who got our jobs. Even though only Lucca was actually legally adult, most of the others at least _looked_ old enough to be what they claimed. I, on the other hand, have been cursed with short stature and- dare I say it- a somewhat fragile physical appearance. There really is nothing worse than random people off the street commenting how cute 'she' is. _I_ don't think I look like a girl but.... Bleh. I'd blame it on genetics if I had any idea who my parents are... or were. 

In any case, whoever had recommended us to this client had surely mentioned the fact that only one of us was actually over twenty. Therefor I only really had to decide whether or not to take the job. 

"Could you get the crew together?" I asked Arowyn, looking up from my thoughts. "I think we're going to have to vote on this." 

She nodded, blue eyes sparkling. "Aye captain. I think they're all at that hardware shop on the other side of the docks..." she smirked, "so as long as Darvin hasn't decided to 'reconfigure' something I should be able to get them here in about thirty minutes." 

With that she turned and debarked the ship with a few graceful strides, her short blonde hair flying wildly in the wind before she reestablished full shields. It wasn't until about five minutes latter that I realized that I'd forgotten to find out how much the client was _offering_. "Oi. That was stupid of me... I'll have to ask her when she gets back. No way we can accept a mission for cheap- not with all our damage expenses at least." 

*** 

An hour latter the five of us were gathered together in the 'mess hall' of the _Wind_. As it had turned out, our 'chief engineer' Darvin Winters _had_ been in the middle of modifying some random piece of hardware in the shop they'd been visiting. Apparently the shop's owner was delighted, but Lucca, Arowyn, and our 'chief medical officer,' Jessena Locke, had been bored to tears. I know for a fact that the only reason they'd stayed with Darvin is because he has a slight... er, _problem_ involving the unlawful acquisition of items. Not that he _tries_ to steal things so much as the fact that one of his 'gifts' is teleportation and he has very little control over it unless he's concentrating. Normally that isn't a problem, but when he gets involved with anything mechanical he tends to forget everything else. Thankfully we've modified the shields on the _Wind_ to prevent this while he's onboard but... well the last thing we need is have the word 'thieves' added onto the list of 'destructive', 'chaotic', and 'just plain scary'. None of which are true- purposely at least- but as Jess said: "At least it isn't 'just plain scary _looking_.'" 

"So what's so important about this job that you needed to ask the lot of us about it first?" asked Jess, buffing her immaculately manicured nails on her _way_ too short skirt. "Is it somewhere we can't take the _Wind_? Or maybe someplace we aren't technically allowed in at all?" 

I shook my head and brushed my wind-mussed black hair out of my eyes, ignoring the dirty look I was receiving from her. Obviously I was in for another of Jess' patented 'as Captain you should always look your best and at least _try_ to keep your hair neat' lectures from her later. "Neither of those. The reason I've called everyone together is because the client has refused to tell us any details of the job until and _unless_ we accept it." I paused to let this sink in; it wasn't everyday that we had this type of problem after all. 

When no one commented I continued. "All we know is that it's a missing person case of some sorts and that the person the client wants us to find has been missing for around six or seven years. Considering the lack of information given beforehand I imagine that the 'missing person' is rather important. Possibly too important to get the authorities involved- but I could be wrong about that assumption." 

"Not very informative," noted Darvin. He was holding a can of Pepsi and had a rather content smile. He also looked a mess, obviously not having bothered to change out of his greasy overalls and t-shirt before coming to this meeting. I decided to hope that the Pepsi was from _our_ fridge- not someone else's, and just not mention it. Besides, from the way Jess had just switched her attention to him, Darvin was undoubtedly already in for a fashion lecture- too bad this didn't mean I wasn't gonna get a lecture too. "You'd think they'd at least give us a name." 

"That's for sure," said Jess, still giving poor Darvin the evil eye. "This woman didn't mention anything else?" 

It was Lucca who spoke up, gray eyes gleaming slightly. "She didn't _say_ anything else... but I did get a few _impressions_." 

At this we turned our full attention to our guardian. This pronouncement had confirmed my earlier suspicions; this job _had_ to be important if Lucca's unusual mixture of telepathy and foresight had actually kicked in. To my knowledge he'd only used it three times in the last ten years and in every case he'd managed to save several thousand lives. "Go on," I said, sitting up from my comfortable slouch and giving him my absolute attention. As I did this the other three followed my example so we actually _looked_ like we were paying attention for once. 

Lucca smiled in thanks. "First of all, the woman we met is only a mediator for the _real_ client; in reality she is working for a Seer in... Japan, I think- somewhere around that part of the world at least. I got a few _really_ strange flashes in connection to that... strange, and alarming. The first was of a modern city in ruins, covered in sand. There were only two buildings left standing... one which didn't really have any specifically recognizable design- but looked important- the other.... Well, it looked just like the Eiffel Tower in Paris but-" 

Something about this description was giving me an odd sense of deja-vu but I couldn't for the life of me figure out what it was.... "Tokyo Tower," I interrupted suddenly, as at least one of the things nagging at me fell into clarity. "The Japanese built an exact replica of the Eiffel Tower in Tokyo quite some time ago... shortly after WWII I think. I... I think I was there once as a child...." 

Everyone blinked, including me. It was a well known fact that I had little memory of the time before I'd been found and adopted by chaos-mage Miya Dawn six years ago (not including the timeloop). I'm not even sure if I'd actually been a Canadian citizen at the time... this new memory of Tokyo Tower seemed to indicate otherwise. It might also explain why I spoke such good Japanese. Aunt Miya and I had always just assumed that my parents had just been Japanese immigrants, possibly illegal, but maybe I'd just been visiting Canada. It was certainly worth looking into... maybe I could finally find out who I was. However that would have to wait. The whole 'Tokyo in ruins' vision was a bit more important than finding out if I had any relatives. 

Darvin obviously shared this sentiment with me, speaking up into the silence that followed this revelation. "I'm glad that you got a memory back captain-" Drat. Not him with the titles too! "But if that was Tokyo in Lucca's vision.... Well, Tokyo's one of the most important cities in the _world_, millions of people live there. A vision of it in ruins is _not_ a good sign." 

The rest of us nodded wordlessly. I was reasonably sure now that we were going to accept this mission regardless of the prospective danger. Nevertheless.... I turned to look into Lucca's eyes, my violet meeting his gray. "Did you get anything else?" 

Lucca nodded. "Yes. The second flash I had was a close up of Tokyo Tower.... there were several cloaked figures gathered there... fourteen I think. I couldn't see any of them clearly but I could almost _feel_ the power radiating from them... and at least two of them were armed. I had the distinct impression that these people were important, and that they were probably the ones responsible for the city's destruction." Something about this was still nagging me but... 

He paused for a moment than continued. "The last flash was really too quick for me to see anything... it was actually like a _series_ of flashes going _by really_ fast- like a blurred video. I saw several people, possibly the ones from the Tower, but even though they weren't cloaked this time I could see any of them clear enough to pick out individual characteristics. I might be able to recognize them if I saw them in person though." 

Arowyn frowned, "I didn't get anything like that from the woman of course," she said with a vague gesture, " due to my gift being Empathy, but it does explain the sense of... anxiety, that I felt from her. I just assumed that it meant that she wanted to find her missing person really quickly, that she was under time constraints." 

I nodded thoughtfully, still wondering just what it was about this situation that was bothering me. "Maybe she is... did your empathy detect anything else from her? Anything that might indicate that she is directly or even indirectly involved in the seemingly eminent destruction of Tokyo?" 

Arow shook her head. "No... but now that I've heard what Lucca got... I don't think she has much information about this. I think we might have to talk to this Japanese Seer." 

"Hmm," I blinked, "But what about the person she wants us to look for? What does he have to do with this? How is he connected to the destruction of Tokyo?" 

Lucca shook his head. "I don't know... something really powerful was blocking me from information about him. I couldn't even pick up a name... It was funny though; the power blocking my search seemed oddly familiar- I just can't place it right now." He frowned, "but in connection to the other vision I _did_ get the impression that he might be able to stop it from becoming reality." 

Darvin nodded. "If it could mean stopping Tokyo from being destroyed.... I think it's worth the effort of finding him." 

I nodded, "So do I... even if we don't get hired we're gonna have to do _something_ to save Tokyo. Besides, while we're there I can see if I recognize anything. I might finally be able to find out just who I am!" I paused as I remembered something. "That reminds me, exactly how much are we being offered for this job anyway?" 

Arowyn blinked, and blushed as she suddenly realized that she'd totally forgotten to mention this detail. "Oh! I think she said it was thirty, maybe forty million dollars in American currency... or was it fifty? I can never remember these things...." 

Everyone stared at her in near incomprehension for an entire three seconds before breaking into spontaneous outbursts of shock. 

"What!?" From me, visions of coffee shops and large musical instruments dancing in my head. 

"No way! When did she mention this!?" Lucca sounded a bit outraged, obviously upset about having missed this while he was having his visions. 

"Are you _serious_?" Jess had the same 'oh my god I could finally afford to buy that whatever' look as I'm sure the rest of us did. 

Darvin's dark eyes were shining brightly. "I could finally get the materials for the mini-quantum phase ultra-sub modifier I designed last month!" 

Needless to say, the decision was unanimous. Not only did none of us want to be inadvertently responsible for that destruction of one of the most important cities in the world, but also we were all of the opinion that fifty million dollars could _really_ come in handy. At the very least we'd be able to afford to pay for all the property damages we'd inadvertently caused over the past three years. After a bit of discussion we decided that we'd visit our client after dinner. After all, if she _was_ under a time constraint it would be best if we started as soon as possible.. 

*** 

It was nearly sunset by the time the five of us found ourselves standing outside the elaborate Victorian style manor that our client lived in. Quite simply it was _huge_. It was one of those type of places that probably had a hedge-maze in back, gardens, mausoleums... the works. 

"Wow," stated Jess, "I sure hope that none of our er... rivals... manage to find us while we're here. We'd _never_ be able to afford to rebuild _this_ place." 

"That's for sure," I agreed. 

"They _shouldn't_ be able to find us," Darvin said, "The new phase-location modifications in our personal shields should prevent _anyone_ from finding us. In fact we probably could probably hide our presence's from each _other_ if we really wanted- of course it wouldn't be quite as powerful but... anyway we shouldn't have to worry about property-damages unless _we_ cause them." 

I smiled and shook my head in mock sorrow, "That's what _I_ always say... it's not _our_ fault that our enemies like to destroy stuff." 

Lucca spoke up, "Aren't we going to knock?" He gestured at the huge double-doors that we'd been standing in front of for the last five minutes. 

I blinked, a gesture that was echoed by Arow, Darvin, and Jess. "Oh yeah... I'd forgotten we were here for a purpose." 

The door was answered by a rather stern looking old man in a fancy suit. The look he gave the five of us was one of unconcealed contempt. If I'd been more social conscious I might have felt that our group was underdressed; with myself in cut-off blue-jeans and a black t-shirt, Arow in her modified peach-hued African-style sari/ tights combo, Lucca in his blowzy white vest and off-white khakis, Jessa in her overly abbreviated blue mini-shirt and halter-top, and Darvin still in his greasy overalls and t-shirt. We certainly looked out of place in the vast and sparkling entrance-hall of the manor but I knew that, as a group, we looked pretty cool. The man, probably the butler, lead us through the halls and corridors of the building silently; only giving the lot of us looks of suspicion and practically _broadcasting_ the fact that he considered us to be scum. I didn't like him at all so I was quite glad when he knocked on a large oaken door and declared, "Madam. The bounty-hunters are here to see you." 

At this I glared at the butler coldly and stated in my seldom-used scary 'I'm gonna kill you' voice, "We are _not_ bounty-hunters, we are _adventurers_. Get it right next time." _Or else_, I left unsaid. 

The butler paled dramatically and nodded once before hurrying off. "Meany," teased Arow with a grin. 

I shrugged and smiled. "He deserved it; I don't like being insulted." 

Before anyone could reply to this the door opened and we shuffled into the room. It turned out to be a rather spacious and richly furnished office, complete with several bookcases, an unobtrusive filing cabinet, and a large desk with a fancy computer on it. Behind this desk sat the woman who I assumed must be our prospective client, a dark-haired Asian woman in an immaculate black business suit.. She didn't look up as we entered but spoke, "I assume this means you have decided to accept my job-offer then?" 

"Yes," I answered for everyone in my best 'I'm a professional' voice. "We will need some details on the exact nature of the job, as well as any information you have that might be able to aid us, but other than that we should be able to handle everything ourselves. May I ask whether or not you are under any type of time-constraints?" 

The woman still didn't look at us, engrossed instead on some bit of information on the screen before her. "He must be found before 1999." 

I blinked in surprise. That wasn't quite as much time as I'd been hoping for, the current date being mid-November 1998, but.... "All right, but we need some information first." 

The woman nodded. "The person you need to find disappeared almost six years ago. For reasons that are irrelevant to this, his mother had decided to take him out of Tokyo-" 

The five of us shared glances as she continued, "- to someplace safer. This place was supposed to have been Okinawa but something happened on the flight there. His mother arrived in Okinawa safely but without any memory of why she had been traveling or even who she was... thus no one knew of the boy's disappearance until three months ago when the mother abruptly regained her memories and contacted my client for help." 

We once again shared a look as yet more of our suspicions were proven to be right. Oddly enough there was _still_ something about this that was nagging me but I was unsure as to what it was. "So for unknown reasons this boy disappeared six years ago through mysterious, but probably mystical, means and you've only now discovered it?" I paused, ignoring the woman's gasp when I mentioned 'mystical', then added, "You must have already searched Japan if you're bringing this to us all the way in Bermuda, so I assume that you've failed to find your missing person by normal or regular paranormal means." 

Once again the woman nodded, "Yes. My reference was correct in her claims of your group's astuteness. Both modern... and less than modern means have been used to track the boy but nothing has been found except a small trace implying that the boy's memory may also have been wiped. We're hoping that he still remembers his name at least but...." 

"You aren't really making this simple for us," Jess stated blithely. 

I agreed. "Could you perhaps get to the point? Do you have _any_ idea where this person is? Why does he need to be found before 1999? And who _is_ he anyway? You haven't mentioned his name once..." 

For the first time the woman looked up at us, taking each of our appearances in with a little visible surprise at how young we all were. Finally her gaze fell onto me and she froze, eye's widening even as her jaw dropped. Frankly I was insulted; I _knew_ she was going to make a comment on how short I was. And if she called me cute I _swear_.... 

As if in a daze she said, "I'm very sorry but I'm not the one to tell you why... he... must return to Tokyo in 1999. However... may I ask you your name? I'm afraid I never did catch it..." 

I was starting to feel slightly uncomfortable by the way she was staring so intently at me and I could feel the curious gazes of my friends on me as well. "My name?" I blinked, ignoring the growing feeling of apprehension growing in my chest. "It's Kamui. Kamui Dawn. Although people tend to add the title of captain too. Why? What does my name have to do with this?" 

The woman nodded and gave me a searching look, "I don't suppose you could tell me if you remember where you were six years ago...? 

I paled as several things fell into place and I realized just _what_ had been nagging me about this whole situation. Ignoring the equally shocked expressions on my friends' faces as they put things together too, I exclaimed, "Gack! You can't possibly think that _I_ am the person you're looking for!" I hesitated then tentatively added, "Can you?" 

The woman gave me a sad smile. "From your expression and those of your friends I see that the facts fit. It's true. The moment I saw you I _knew_... but I wasn't certain until you told me your name. The person who disappeared was named Kamui Shirou... he was 9 years old, small for his age, and fit your description perfectly. Therefor...." 

I grimaced, everything sounded right but.... Suddenly a torrent of images flashed through my mind. A beautiful woman with long brown hair.... she looked so kind. _Mother_? Yes.... Fragments of memories long forgotten brightened and glued themselves back together. 

_I was a little kid standing underneath a large oak tree, a slightly older boy with short black hair and a serious demeanor standing protectively behind me and a cute little girl with short honey-blonde hair and soulful brown eyes beside me._ _Fuuma and Kotori..._

Even now I felt something warm and fuzzy touch my soul at the thought of them... More memories assaulted me, though I didn't let any outward sign of it show. I remembered Mother telling me we had to leave, that Fuuma and Kotori's mother had died for me, and if we stayed they would be in danger too. I remembered my tearful farewell and the ride to the airport.... I remembered getting on the plane and.... a flash of golden light? I blinked and frowned suspiciously. My next memory after the golden light was being found by Miya with no memory. The golden light however... 

Suddenly I looked up. " I was found almost six years ago by my adopted mother and I had no memory of anything before that save for my first name...." Though I already knew the truth I turned to my friends. "What do you think about this?" 

Arowyn shrugged, "It _does_ seem to fit..." 

"I agree," added Lucca, "I remember when Miya found you wandering around her estate... you couldn't understand English until Miya cast that universal translation spell of hers... I'd forgotten about that.... and it's true that your arrival was rather mysterious considering all the wards and defensive shielding around the Dawnlight estate...." 

I nodded. I'd always wondered just how I'd gotten onto Miya's property but it hadn't seemed important. Now however, if my suspicions were correct.... 

"This might be what you've been searching for Kamui..." Darvin voiced seriously. I saw that he'd acquired another Pepsi and hoped that our client hadn't noticed. 

Jess flashed me a cheerful smile, "I say go for it captain! I've always wanted to visit Japan after all. Besides, if you _are_ the person we were supposed to find, then this can officially be put on file as the easiest job we've ever completed!" 

The woman sweatdropped, obviously having remembered that she'd offered us a rather large reward for finding... me. "Well... you still have to go to Tokyo." 

I shrugged and, with a casual smirk, said, "That shouldn't be a problem. By the way, do you have any idea why the Golden Sea of Chaos would be interested in changing the Destined course of my life?" 

Everyone sweatdropped and Lucca blinked. "Eh? What does L-sama have to do with this?" 

I brushed a strand of hair out of my eyes and replied, "I kinda remember everything now. Major flashback scene and all that. Turns out the whole disappearance thing is right.... I remember being on the plane one minute with Mother than 'poof'! Big flash of golden light and I'm wandering around Miya's place trying to remember who the heck I am. And, lo and behold, it just so happens that we've encountered that very same golden light not too long ago. Thus it is that I can tell quite plainly that my translocation and amnesia are all L-sama's fault." I paused to let this sink in then turned back to our client, "So, is there any particular place in Tokyo that I'm supposed to go? And are you _sure_ you can't tell me why I specifically have to be there in 1999?" 

The woman blinked once or twice. "I... I don't know why you have to be there; my client told me only to find and send you to her. She is called Hinato-hime and you will find her in a shielded room underneath the Diet Building in Tokyo. I'm afraid that's all I can tell you." 

"That's not very helpful," asserted Arowyn before I could. 

The woman shrugged. "I'm sorry. In any case the payment for finding... yourself," a slight grimace at this, "has been placed into your account. Please remember to go to Tokyo... I don't know why but somehow I feel that it's very important." 

I nodded, repressing an urge to smile happily at getting paid for 'finding myself'. "Right. We were going to go to Tokyo anyway, this is just more reason to. So if that's all we'll be leaving. You can tell Hinato-hime that I'll be there in about four or five weeks.... just in time for New Years." 

The woman shook her head, got up and opened the door for us. "I cannot contact her... she told me specifically _not_ to let anyone know that you had been found until you'd actually arrived. Farewell and good-luck." 

Without saying a word the five of us turned and left the manor. It had been a rather... surprising day and I, for one, was very very tired. "We'll discuss this tomorrow," I said as we reached the _Wind_, "We're going to need to do some research and heavy-duty planning before we go to Tokyo. There's definitely more to this then a reunion with my long-lost family." 

The others gave varied mutterings of assent and trudged towards their respective living quarters, leaving me alone on the deck. A thousand thoughts ran through my mind, the foremost being questions. Why had I remembered now? Why did I have to go back to Tokyo in 1999? What did I have to do with Lucca's vision of Tokyo in... ruins? _Uh oh. I sure hope the destruction of Tokyo isn't going to be **our** fault! It's bad enough that treasure troves and ancient ruins fall apart behind us... I don't want to be responsible for the destruction of Tokyo too!_

Abruptly I turned and headed towards the lower holding deck which also happened to be 'engineering' and Darvin's quarters. If anyone could stop this from becoming a disaster before we even _got_ to Tokyo it'd be him. 

*** 

End Prologue (Please, _please_ review!) 

/Author's ramble:/ 

When I wrote this I had just finished reading yet another ultra depressing X fic and was trying to think up a plausable fic idea where everything turned out happy and peaceful. Being as depressed as I was, it occurred to me that if Kamui had been raised as a completely different person, _not_ wont to angst and the like, then things might turn out better. I have a similar idea for Tokyo Babylon as well; a crossover in which Subaru and Hokuto are accidently summoned to the FF7 world near the beginning of said game and about halfway through the manga. This, of course, changes the very course of fate and destiny. Anyway, I like cameos and I'm a really slow writter. Just a warning. 

/End Author's Ramble:/ 


	2. Chapter One

X: An Alternate Past Chapter One: In which our heroes travel a bit and some plans are made. 

___ 

"You know, I think we should install one of those nifty gothic pipe-organs in the _Wind_." I stated out of the blue about two weeks after we discovered who I was- or rather who I had _been_. 

"A _pipe organ_?!" Jess exclaimed incredulously from the depths of her beanbag chair. "In the _Wind_?" 

Lucca looked up from the _National Geographic_ magazine he was reading. "That would be kind of strange... even for us Kamui." 

I shrugged and attempted to sit up from my own beanie chair. "Yeah but whenever we docked anywhere we could freak out the locals by playing nifty horror-movie music really loud! It'd be fun!" 

"Loud horror-movie music?" Arowyn queried as she entered the 'mess hall' (see all purpose lounge-room wherein we sometimes eat). "Like that whole screechy violin thing?" 

"Ah, no," I replied with a slight sweatdrop. "I was just saying we should install a pipe organ... but now that you mention it the screechy violin bit has potential too...." 

"Hmm... but y'know," Arowyn said thoughtfully, "I bet that Darvin could probably do something with a pipe-organ.... maybe some type of new propulsion drive based on sound waves?" 

For some odd reason Lucca and Jess went awfully pale at this suggestion. I smirked. "That _does_ sound like a good idea Arow. We'll have to ask Darvin about that later." Suddenly something occurred to me. "By the way, if you're _here_, who's driving the ship?" 

Arowyn blinked. "Huh? Who's driving.... Oh! I left her on auto-pilot so I could get me a Pepsi." 

"Ah. I see." 

"We almost there yet Arowyn?" Jess asked with a yawn. 

Arowyn shook her head. "Nope. Cuz've that stop we made in LA we're gonna be another two days at _least_." 

"Right. I'm going back to sleep then." 

Arow sweatdropped. "You do that." 

She turned to me, "So any more ideas for our trip to Japan next month?" 

"Not really. We need more info before we can do much of anything really. Darvin's been doing his best to cover our tracks and stuff but... I'd really like to know just what we're gonna be walking into." 

That was why we were heading back to the Dawnlight Estate in southwestern Canada rather than straight to an unknown [Destiny] in Tokyo. Aunt Miya was pretty good with situations like this and, even if she couldn't help, the Estate had one of the best collections of magickal paraphernalia and lore on the planet. Plus Miya had a lot of friends in the magickal community who might at least know who this 'Hinato-hime' I was supposed to see was. We already knew from pure logic that she was probably the seer from Lucca's vision, but it'd be nice to know just how _important_ she was. 

"Me too," Arowyn commented. After a slight pause she asked, "What did you mean Darvin's covering our tracks? I mean it's not like the _Wind_ is one of those big oil tankers you can follow easily." 

I blinked. "Er... actually I meant that he's making sure that no one will be able to look us up on a search engine or through government databases." 

"Oh." Arow shrugged. "I guess that makes more sense then." 

I smirked. "Yep. Dunno _how_ he's doing it but.... well I'd much prefer whoever wants me in Tokyo to know no more about us than we know about them; or even less if possible." 

She nodded. "Exactly. Even though you could have possibly said that in a way that made more sense I agree with you completely." 

Suddenly Lucca looked up from his magazine. "That's probably not even going to be an issue," he said thoughtfully. "If L-sama has taken a hand in this then it's rather unlikely that anyone besides this Hinato person and your mother even knows you were missing." 

"Maybe," I said. "Even so at least it's keeping Darvin busy." 

Arowyn and Lucca nodded. Keeping Darvin busy was top priority on everyone's list. It had been made clear over the years they'd known each other that if Darvin got bored then interesting times soon followed. It had in fact, been one of his earlier 'boredom relievers' that had gotten the lot of them sans Lucca stuck in that temporal anomoly for all those years. Another incident had been the time Darvin had decided to meddle with alchemy and the crew had spent three weeks in a daycare as little kids. Then there was the 'love potion' catastrophe... it was good thing Arow and Jessa had been cured before they got to Switzerland. Even so neither of them had spoken to Darvin for three months after that. Though oddly enough it hadn't really effected their friendship with _each other_ that much. Either way it was reason enough not always keep their chief engineer busy. 

* * *

The next two days flew by quickly though we spent most of the time napping and generally lazing about. I wrote a new song and somehow managed to convince the others to play it with me, with Jessa doing the vocals. That quickly lead to an entire night of music and dancing which only begun to die down in the early light of morning when Lucca fell overboard. Rumor has it that he was actually pushed but I wouldn't know. Either way he was just a _bit_ upset since it _is _the middle of December and we're far enough North that it's actually cold. 

Finally in the early morning mist of the third day we arrived at the harbor we had intended to dock in. Only there was a bit of a problem. See it turns out that the harbor was frozen over. The five of us stood on the deck glaring at the ice with just a _bit_ of malevolence. 

"What do we do?" Jess asked, shivering. None of us were really dressed for winter... it just really hadn't occurred to us that we'd need to. 

"I dunno," Arowyn replied. "I tried asking the ice to turn back into water but it doesn't want to. To bad we don't have a Firestarter in the group." 

I grimaced, "Me and Lucca _do_ have fire spells but I don't think that'd help anyway." 

"It'd take too much personal energy," Lucca added with a nod. 

Darvin looked up from the gadget he'd been fiddling with throughout our discussion. "Why do we have to park here anyway? Wouldn't it be easier to go directly to Dawnlight?" 

We turned to stare at him as if he'd just grown a second head. After a moment I cautiously asked: "And just how do you propose we do that? Last I heard Dawnlight was landlocked." 

Darvin blinked. "I know that. I was only suggesting that we could try out my new aero-sphere phase transmitter and just fly there." 

I blinked, attempted to translate 'aero-sphere phase transmitter' into a known language, and then blinked again. At last I decided that since Darvin _had_ mentioned the word 'fly' and that we _did_ need to get to Dawnlight it was worth a try. "Er... okay?" 

Darvin grinned. "Yay! This won't take but a moment!" 

As he disappeared below deck I had a feeling I might regret this. "Don't look at me," I said to the others who were giving me various looks of alarm. "I don't exactly know- or _want_ to know what he's doing but it might work. Maybe. I hope so." 

A sudden jolt shook the _Wind_ and suddenly a shock of vertigo ran through me. The _Wind_ was rising. "Oh dear. So _this_ is what Darvin meant when he said we could just fly to Dawnlight. Oh _dear_." 

Before anyone could comment we were suddenly a good twenty meters in the air and rising. After the initial shock the _Wind_'s external shields had modified themselves to compensate. There now appeared to be a translucently blue bubble around the ship and there was some sort of gravity modifier at work which prevented any further vertigo or acceleration pressure. Wordlessly the four of us gazed over the railing upon the increasingly smaller world below us. 

At about a hundred meters above ground we finally stopped rising... though I had a feeling that Darvin had probably done this himself. It was rather likely, considering the gravity/shield bubble, that he had originally designed this new whatsit for _space_ travel. 

"Wow," declared Jess as she leaned over the railing. "Everything is so much _smaller_ now." 

"It's pretty cool," admitted Arowyn, staying a safe distance away from said railing. Belatedly I remembered she had a slight problem with heights. "Won't be as easy to navigate though I don't think...." 

"Darvin probably has a way around that," I said. "And I think the bubble would catch anyone who feel overboard so you don't have to worry about falling to your doom." 

She stuck her tongue at me. "You offering to try it out Mr. 'My psychic abilities enable me to fly'?" 

I sweatdropped. "Er... no thanks." 

"What _I'd_ like to know," Lucca spoke up, "is what we're going to tell the nice folks in the Canadian Airforce who happen to be heading this way at the moment." 

Arow blinked. "...Oh dear... Darvin must have forgotten to shield against normal radar." 

"Quick!" I declared, thinking fast. "Everyone put on lab-coats and look professional! As of right now the lot of us are researchers the Dawnlight Institute of Mana-Tech, founded by Kamui Dawn himself." 

To their credit the three of them only stared at me for a moment before rushing off to find the appropriate garments. I hurried down to engineering to get Darvin. He was the only one of us who spoke enough techno-jargon to be believable. 

Five minutes later the five of us were assembled on the deck in plain sight of the approaching fighter planes. I noted that they'd brought in a helicopter too; probably to get in close. Each of us either held some piece of important looking equipment or a clipboard. Jess had even gone so far as to dress less skimpily and even put her long red hair up in a strict bun rather than her usual high ponytail. 

The planes began circling after it became apparent that we weren't openly armed and the helicopter came in slightly above us and lowered a rope-ladder. Due to a slight modification we'd made, it went right through the shields as if they weren't there. A minute later a woman in army clothes climbed down the ladder to land on deck. 

"Hello," I greeted cheerfully before she could start trying to arrest us or whatever. "Lovely day for a flight isn't it?" 

She stared. "Er... who are you and what are you doing here?" 

I continued to smile; doing my best impression of one of L-sama's favorite 'people', a mazoku general named Xellos. Despite the fact that he was technically evil I'd rather liked him when we met a year or so ago when we met L-sama for the 'first' time. I'd made a special point not to use his favorite catch-phrase very much though since I didn't care for being hit. "We're with the Dawnlight Institute of Mana-Tech." I said this in a way that made it seem like this was common knowledge and she'd have to be an idiot not to have heard of us. 

"Oh," she said, floundering for words. I had a feeling they probably didn't have a proper procedure for this type of situation. "And exactly what are you doing...?" 

I remained smiling. "Ah, Darvin?" 

He nodded and started to explain in great deal exactly what we were doing here, why we were here, and how we'd gotten here. I didn't even bother to try and keep up with it but was rather amused to see the woman's eyes glaze over with incomprehension after the first five minutes. Negotiations went easy after that, and as soon as their higher-up's heard the name 'Dawnlight' they let us go with a polite request to stay out of major fly-zones and try not to scare anyone. Before we knew it they were gone and all we had to worry about was how to fly the _Wind_. 

Luckily that proved to be rather easy since Darvin had indeed included navigational modifications when he'd added flight capabilities to the _Wind_. Arow was still a bit leery about being so far up but was rather happy with the nifty view screens Darvin had given her. At this rate we would be at the Dawnlight Estate in about twenty minutes. 

* * *

End Chapter One. 

In chapter two: We get to meet Kamui's 'aunt Miya' for the first time and preparations for the trip to Tokyo are made. 

* * *

Author's Note: I know this is a bit short but I've recently discovered that I'm better at writing short chapters than long ones. Oh! And as for magic and psychic powers I'm using a mixture of Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar books' magic, Slayers magic, and random stuff I've made up in addition to what already exists in the X-verse. Please review! 


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